That’s what this is to Kobe Bryant.
It’s not an old man breaking down. It’s not a song where the knee bone’s connected to the Achilles tendon. It’s not a reason for insecurity to rise up inside the warrior who has embraced all broken-body challenges to the point that Phil Jackson cited Bryant as beyond Michael Jordan in sheer guts.
Actually, it’s five weeks, because Bryant has already been out a week since suffering a fracture in the tibial plateau of his left leg.
Bryant said Wednesday in his first press briefing since being diagnosed last Thursday that contrary to all the analysts who see him stranded again and lost at sea, there’s no doubting the strength of the wind in his sails and his drive to shut up critics: “It’s the same old tune. It’s just being sung a little more loudly now.”
Heck, maybe it’s four weeks, because Bryant’s basic mindset is to beat every doctor’s projection for any injury he has ever had. That’s when he has agreed to sit out at all, because his reflexive mindset before common sense is to keep playing if he can’t make his injury any worse by playing. He believed the doctor who told him about this fracture was joking.
Bryant is already doing a lot of bike riding and adjusting his diet with plans in mind to adjust his upcoming rehab to prepare his left foot and ankle joint for the grind of playing heavy minutes again.
“I feel more locked in now than I've been my entire career, because of this,” he said.
So there you have it—the same ol’ driven and determined Kobe.
He got up off the bench during the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss to the Miami Heat on Christmas Day just to say a proper hello to actor Samuel L. Jackson in a nearby courtside seat. Bryant loves his movies and knows...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
